SF shelter director leaving

NEWS

by Seth Hemmelgarn

The director of the nonprofit that runs Jazzie's Place, the homeless
shelter in San Francisco's Mission district for LGBT adults, is leaving.

Wendy Phillips, 47, who's served as executive director of
Dolores Street Community Services for over five years, said she's "very
proud" of the agency's work in that time, including the 2015 opening of the
LGBT-welcoming shelter, which has 24 beds and is the first space of its kind in
the country. The shelter is named for Jazzie Collins, a transgender woman who
advocated for housing, seniors, and other issues and died in 2013.

Phillips said getting the shelter up and running "is
one of our big accomplishments in terms of growing the program and being able
to provide that service for the LGBT homeless community."

In an email blast announcing her departure, she said that
she and her family are moving to her hometown of Chico, California "in
order to be closer to extended family there, and to live in a place that is
economically more sustainable for us."

Phillips, a straight ally, has accepted a job as director of
property management at Community Housing Improvement Program, which helps
low-income people with housing. She'll stay at Dolores Street until mid to late
August and will start her new job in September.

"This was a very difficult decision to make," said
Phillips, who's been at Dolores Street for almost 12 years. Her salary there is
$84,000.

Besides Jazzie's Place, Dolores Street, which has a budget
of approximately $6 million, also operates other facilities for people who are
currently or formerly homeless, those who are homeless and living with
HIV/AIDS, as well as immigration and employment assistance services.

"I am deeply grateful for the opportunities I have had
to work alongside many of you to advocate for and create affordable housing,
organize for tenant rights, and support programs providing shelter to our
homeless communities, legal services and education for immigrants, and
employment and empowerment for day laborers and domestic workers," Phillips
said in her email.

An interim executive director will be brought in until a
permanent replacement can be found, she said, adding that she'll be available
to Dolores Street "on a consultancy basis until the transition to new
leadership is complete."

Mason Jeffrys, Dolores Street's director of administration
and development, said in an interview that he and Phillips have worked
"very, very closely together over the years, and I'm going to miss her dearly."

Jeffrys, who's gay, said that Phillips' departure
"should not have any impact on Jazzie's Place. Over the last couple of
years, we've developed a really strong senior management team."

He said, "Things are great" at Jazzie's, and "It's
fully occupied. There's a waiting list for folks to get in, so there's
definitely a need for more LGBT safe spaces in the shelter system."

He's not going to apply to replace Phillips because "I'm
a more internally focused person, where the executive director needs to be more
externally focused." Jeffrys, who's white, also noted that many of the
agency's clients are immigrants, and he said its next director "should be a
person of color."

Yesenia Lacayo, program manager for the Dolores Shelter
program, said there haven't been many complaints from clients about Jazzie's
Place compared to other shelters.

The city's Shelter Monitoring Committee said in its report
for the quarter covering January through March that Jazzie's Place didn't have
any infractions and only had one complaint against it.

Details weren't available, but the alleged violation was
related to the standard to "treat all clients equally, with respect and
dignity," The shelter "has responded to the complaint, but [the]
complaint is still open pending the client's response," the report says.

Lacayo, who's bisexual, didn't have details about the
complaint, but she said problems that have come up have largely stemmed from
people adjusting to being in such a space and learning the rules.

"It's tough," said Lacayo. "You're with
strangers at the beginning of a 90-day reservation, and most of the clients
have never been at a shelter."

Dolores Street wasn't able to provide any clients willing to
be interviewed for this story.

Dave Ferrier, president and CEO of Community Housing
Improvement Program, Phillips' new agency, said she was chosen "primarily
because of her leadership skills and her background in affordable housing and
community-based work. We're very fortunate she's desiring to move back to
Chico."